About ¡Yo Soy!

YoSoyArtista.Net Narrative Description

Yo Soy Artista was formed exclusively for educational purposes, was incorporated on March 3, 2008, and was granted "Not for Profit" status on September 18, 2008. Specifically, Yo Soy Artista consists of an online arts education website and an online student portfolio website. In Spanish, ¡Yo Soy Artista! means "I am an artist."

Since its start in January 2000, over 65,000 people have visited the site. The site has over 8,000 pages for education, assessment, and practice. The music education website is a comprehensive online high school musicianship course designed to meet the needs of students in every area of music. It incorporates music theory, composition, keyboard skills, music technology, and ear training that can be used by individuals or in a classroom setting. The online program supports learning in theory and composition, augmenting current school programs that emphasize musical performance. Though performance has an infinite amount of value, understanding the theory and practice behind the music is what creates true musicians. The online music education website currently provides online music training for eight different courses: Theory 1, 2, 3, and 4, Songwriting, Electronic Music, Advanced Electronic Music, and Advanced Placement Music. For each course, there are chapter notes, online lessons, written lessons, ear training, and tests. The online music education website allows teachers to create individualized plans for each student and track their progress. This feature provides teachers with the opportunity to work with many different ability levels in the same room while maintaining a challenging pace for each student. Each student also receives immediate feedback. Very few schools can afford music education past band, choir, and orchestra and do not have the means to provide a comprehensive music education. The online music education website affords schools that opportunity. The North Allegheny School District in Wexford, Pennsylvania has been using the curriculum since 1999, and the Omaha Public Schools started using it in 2008.

The curriculum currently taught was developed in 1999 as part of a Master's Thesis completed by the President of Yo Soy Artista. The program at that time included 150 high school students in the North Allegheny School District. Since that time, the program has grown to six teachers teaching over 500 students. Many of these students graduate from high school and place very well in and even test out of prestigious college theory programs. In order to accomplish these results, several years of research, work with the students, and interviews among the teachers who utilized the curriculum were completed. The curriculum is currently designed for high school level students. Future considerations for this organization include developing similar curriculums intended for the elementary and middle school levels. Yo Soy Artista was founded due to the interest in sharing the success of this program with other school districts and individuals whose school districts do not have the ability or resources to provide this caliber of education.

The online student portfolio website is a safe place where students can post his or her original visual art, music, and writing. Each member is authenticated as an actual school student and has the ability to discuss all posted works. All postings and discussions are queued before actually posted to the website, pending the approval of the site administrator. The educational value of this tool allows students to elaborate on each work of art posted to the site by sharing his or her creative thoughts and ideas. It also encourages students to utilize formal writing techniques to participate in a creative and critical dialogue about the work. The online student portfolio has been a huge success. The site started on August 28, 2007 and has had over 4,300 legitimate hits and over 400 submissions since October 21, 2007. Students can also use the website as an online portfolio showcasing their talents and abilities.

Yo Soy Artista intends to solicit for grants and private donations via methods described in Part VIII of the included Form 1023. These funds will be utilized for purposes such as the upkeep and continued development of the websites, including but not limited to: purchasing additional servers, purchasing additional bandwidth, and purchasing new software as necessary. Costs will also be incurred for travel expenses to train new schools' staff members on how the curriculum of the music website works and how the student works' website operates. This will allow new users opportunity to learn the curriculum so that students will be able to benefit from this unique learning environment. Lastly, costs will also be incurred for various general and administrative costs such as advertising, legal, and accounting expenses. Future cost considerations, as Yo Soy Artista grows, will eventually entail paying third party contractors (Web Designers, Database Administrators, etc.) to provide the technical services necessary to ensure the operational effectiveness of the websites, which is currently provided by the President of Yo Soy Artista.

With the proper funding, the mission can be realized. Students from all schools, regardless of the fiscal means of the actual school district, could utilize the music curriculum to further their students' musicianship skills. All music teachers would have access to a comprehensive established curriculum. Lastly, the students' works site can provide important enhancements to all fine arts, English, and world language classes, providing a safe, supportive online creative community for students to share their artistic work and critical aesthetic responses.

Detailed video tutorials regarding the music curriculum can be found here:

http://www.yosoyartista.net/studentwork/help_login.lasso

http://www.yosoyartista.net/studentwork/help_SubmitPictVidSound.lasso

http://www.yosoyartista.net/data2/howto

A recent study shows that the teachers surveyed feel that approximately sixty percent of students studying music and visual arts don't have adequate resources (see figures 1 and 2.)